Lego plans local store

William "Pat" Hough sorts through his Lego collection at his Cypress home. Hough is among area collectors who are excited about the planned April opening of the Lego store in The Woodlands.

William "Pat" Hough sorts through his Lego collection at his Cypress home. Hough is among area collectors who are excited about the planned April opening of the Lego store in The Woodlands.

Photo: Jerry Baker

Photo: Jerry Baker

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William "Pat" Hough sorts through his Lego collection at his Cypress home. Hough is among area collectors who are excited about the planned April opening of the Lego store in The Woodlands.

William "Pat" Hough sorts through his Lego collection at his Cypress home. Hough is among area collectors who are excited about the planned April opening of the Lego store in The Woodlands.

Photo: Jerry Baker

Lego plans local store

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Cypress resident William Hough, a 44-year-old self-professed adult fan of Lego toys, is excited about a new store opening in The Woodlands because it means the Houston area will have three outlets dedicated to the popular line of interlocking plastic bricks.

The Lego Group is set to open the brand store in late April. The store is under construction on the lower level of the mall's west wing, near women's clothing store Vera Bradley.

Houston area Lego stores are currently located inside the Houston Galleria and inside Baybrook Mall in Friendswood. The Lego Group operates 58 brand stores in the United States.

Hough lives in Northwest Houston and has purchased Lego sets and supplies near and far.

"I have purchased Legos from three outlet stores thus far: the Mall of the America location in Minneapolis, the Barton Creek store in Austin, and the Houston Galleria store," he said.

Offering official Lego building sets as well as an array of gears, minifigures and other building parts, the brand stores include a pick-a-brick wall featuring various sized and colored bricks to be sold in bulk by weight.

The pick-a-brick wall is much like a candy buffet where people can "mix and match and get a huge scoop of something that they like," said Amanda Santoro, assistant brand relations manager for the Lego Group.

"It allows people looking for something really specific for a building project to do that without having to buy a whole set," Santoro said.

The Woodlands store will continue the brand's hands-on environment for shoppers, allowing children and adults the opportunity to learn how to build various sets as well as gather advise from brand experts who will work at the store.

A digital display referred to as a Master Builder Bar will also allow shoppers to scan box sets to see a 3D animation of the constructed sets, offering on-screen building instructions. Master Builder Bar systems can currently display 200 sets.

The store will also host mini model builds for children between ages 6-14 on the first Tuesday of every month. The first 250 children to attend the build events each month learn to construct a themed mini model and they get to take their creations home, for free.

The monthly mini building events are one of a variety of activities the store will host for children, the toy manufacturer's original users.

Hough has a vague memory of playing with Legos when he was 5 or 6 years old. His favorite set remains what he called the Galaxy Explorer, which was part of Lego's space line of building sets produced in the late 1970s to mid 1980s.

Hough is drawn to Lego, he said, because of its potential for expression. "I built a pinball machine with working flippers once just to see if I could do it," he said.

His best guess is that he has owned around 100 building sets since being introduced to the building bricks. Currently, he thinks he has 25 sets, "or at least all the parts to build them with."

Hough has collected Legos for most of his life, expect during what he called a "dark ages" period beginning at the age of 14 when he was told he was too old to play with Legos. He rediscovered his love of the building bricks 17 years later at the age of 31.

The period he stopped collecting Lego, he said, is something most "AFOLs," or adult fans of Lego, experience.

Since 2000 Hough has been a member of Texas Lego Users Group, or TexLUG, for short. The group has members in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas.

"We also have one or two members living in New Braunfels and the Texas Pan Handle," Hough said.

During the group's early years, members met at each other's homes, in spite of the distances they had to travel, simply to "ooh" and "aaah" over each others' Lego creations. Since 2003, the group's primary focus has been to collaborate in putting together massive displays at various private and public venues across the state. TexLUG has featured displays at events such as the annual music, film and interactive conference and festival, South by Southwest, held in Austin. The group has also built displays at Comicpalooza, an international comic book convention held in Texas.

Last year, the group held its first Brick Fiesta, what Hough called a "four-day celebration of Lego," in Austin. Brick Fiesta 2012 will be held in July at the Westine Galleria Hotel in Houston.

There are a growing number of adults around the world establishing groups in which to share their hobby. The toy manufacturer estimates it has developed relationships with more than 70 adult fans of Lego groups with a total of 70,000 registered members. In addition to hosting build events, groups such as TexLUG often host their own websites, blogs and discussion forums. According to the Lego Group, the most popular fan blogs have more than 150,000 unique visitors each month.

The store fits perfectly with The Woodlands Mall's demographics of children as well as adult collectors like Hough, said Gene Satern, the mall's senior general manager. "Having the only Lego store on the north side of Houston is a great addition for us," he said.

More Information

The newest Lego store is set to open in late April inside The Woodlands Mall, 1201 Lake Woodlands Drive. The store will host a three-day grand opening event beginning May 18.

Watch an expert: During the grand opening, a master Lego builder will be on site constructing a large model that will be permanently on display at The Woodlands store

Hands on experience: The public is invited to help build the giant model. Characters built for other stores around the world have included Spongebob Squarepants and Harry Potter. The Woodlands' store giant model will join a number of additional models that are already being built for the new store at the Lego Group's corporate headquarters in Denmark, where the toy was invented in 1932.